Tag Archives: Commodity Prices

The first reason that I will mention is that Oil is
priced in US Dollars. That’s why when you see the value of the dollar fall; you
see the price of oil rise. The people that produce the oil are generally
getting US dollars in return for their product. As such, when the dollar falls,
they are making less money on their product, even if the amount of dollars that
they receive for their oil is equal, and so the price goes up. This applies to
the people buying and selling the oil beyond the producers as well, who are
also simply trying to profit. There are of course several other reasons why oil
continues to rise, and why the dollar continues to fall. I was just pointing
out why the dollar and oil currently move together.

The second reason is that many people are and
have been investing in Oil as it has had quite a run up as the US Dollar has
dropped like a rock. Investors, having a good feeling that the Federal Reserve
would continue to cut interest rates, have continually bought into Oil to make
some profit off of the amazing bull-run that it has had.

The third is an ever increasing growth in the demand for Oil.
This isn’t the 1970’s where we can simply stop using as much Oil here in
America, and prices will fall in relation to our drop in demand. No, these days
the entire world is using more and more Oil. As countries continue to develop
and expand into modern times, there is an ever increasing demand for Oil. This
is the key reason that Oil will never again be as it once was.

2.

Those are the three main reasons as I see them. There are of
course other factors behind the rising price of Oil, such as turmoil and lack
of security in many Oil producing lands, to things such as the weather, which
can cause rather large jumps in the price of Oil in its own right. But those
three issues that I listed above are the key factors behind the current of Oil;
they should be known and understood by everyone.

We all realize that Oil usage is a problem for us here in
the US, and that we need to find a viable alternative, regardless of the
current price of Oil. The heart of the issue is how we move from our high use
of oil, to something better. Clearly the way that the US as a whole operates
has to change, the whole car culture that we have built and glamourized to the
rest of the world has to change. People need to realize how ridiculous it is in
the first place, they have to realize that it is not sustainable in the long
term, and that something has to be done about it, and the sooner something is
done, the better off all humans will be.

I don’t have all of the answers myself. But it is clear to
me that more public funds need to go to public transportation, and other,
better forms of transportation. A huge amount of money is spent rebuilding
roads in the US every year so more and more cars can drive on them. This is an
utter waste of public funding and in reality should not be done. That money
should be spent towards better forms of transportation for all people, not just
those that own cars. Sadly a majority of people want better roads, so they can
drive their SUV’s and other vehicles down the street.

Driving is a part of our culture and it’s what most people
want to do, but that in no way makes it right or good for the future progress
of our country, or humans as a whole. I realize that driving has given people
much more freedom than they previously had, and that is not a bad thing in any
way. But it is an undeniable fact that there are and were better options to
allow all people the freedom that they want and deserve, that is completely
sustainable for a very long length of time. I can’t blame past generations for
wanting to drive and to exercise their freedom to travel around on their own
will, as they didn’t have the insight that we do in our current time. But now
that we do have such information and understand that driving huge vehicles all
over the country on expensive roads is a waste of resources and is not
sustainable in the long term, then something must be done about it.

Every day that passes wherein people continue to go with the
flow and majority feeling is setting back humanity as a whole. It’s setting
back our future generations by hurting our stability and our environment. We
have to step up as a people and bring it to an end. We have to sit down and put
our minds towards progress, rather than selfish deeds, for the good of our
country and the world. We have to realize that suburban sprawl is not necessary
and has only led to us having to rely more and more on our vehicles to get us
away from and back to our homes.

There are better, more modern forms of transportation
available to us right now. They are more efficient and are more sustainable in
the long term, which will lead to a better life for our future generations.
Anything at all will help; simply moving away from overly large vehicles that
are completely unnecessary would be a huge improvement. And I do realize that
we are beginning to move in the right direction, but there is undoubtedly resistance
in many areas that we need to overcome. It has been too long already and it is
time to help our fellow citizens along.